Secret Archives of the Vatican are a collective of musicians based in The Cronx (Croydon, South London) specialising in Middle Eastern and African infused electronic music, such as dubstep, drumstep, dub and breakbeat. Find out more at http://brokendrumrecords.com
I was lucky enough to have picked up a promotional copy of this album at The Great Escape Festival in Brighton. I’d never heard of Chinese Man before and had no idea what to expect, but the lady behind the desk at the French Music Party said I would really enjoy it. She was right.
There are few albums where you just know they’re going to be an important part of your life. Albums you cannot do without and that cut across and inform your musical tastes for years to come. Leftfield’s “Leftism”, for example, is as fresh today as when I first heard it in 1995. In 2005 “Demon Days”# by Gorillaz, gave me that same vibe.
I’m going to stick my neck out hereand say that “Racing with the Sun” by Chinese Man is one of those albums. Infusing hip-hop, scratch turntablism, dub, dubstep with oriental, french, african and middle east genres juxtaposed with samples, live locals and some of the best beats, this album pushes all my buttons. Chinese Man is a collective based not far from Marseilles, France, but the music is from far and wide.
Introduction (Morning Sun) is a relatively simple hip-hop piece, layered with some oriental strings and samples. This leads into One Past, which is overlays piano and xylophone melodies over nice phat beats, morphing seamlessly into some trombone-led dub. If you Please starts with some full-on Chinese instruments, which morph into middle east sounds on top of some hip-hop and African drums.
Miss Chang starts with a sample of an old Chinese song, on top of a lovely dubby beat, leading into some live vocals provided by Taïwan Mc & Cyph4, which reminds me of that Leftfield groove.
Saudade begins with some stand-up bass jazz, before ushering in a hip-hop beat and simply plucked guitar. The skill of the “ambient hip-hop” pieces is the excellent selection and juxtaposition of samples.
Stand!, mashes up American civil rights speeches, north African influences, dubstep wobble, and big beats in a melange that I’ve only ever heard before from Secret Archives of the Vatican. They even managed to turn a civil rights speech into a call-response, before Plex Rock comes in with some live vocals. Very clever indeed.
Racing with the Sun cleverly samples an old country song and layers this on top of a nice dubby beat. Simple, but very effective. This leads into Down, featuring Scratch Bandits Crew and is another hip-hop styled piece with a simple acoustic guitar-led riff, phat beats and some excellent samples.
In my Room lays down a rich beat before overlaying a fragile voice sample, which makes you sit up and notice. Then there’s Get Up, which features Ex-I, Lush One & Plex Rock, but the killer sample is an “Irish/Disney” snippet that makes you laugh out loud and look forward to it’s reprise.
Ta Bom (feat. General Elektriks), brings in some latin beats, to this seemingly simple track. Then there’s J.O.G.J.A which features M2MX , DubYouth & Kill the DJ, providing live vocals over north African samples, and again reminds me of what Leftfield did with “Afro Melt”. And finally, The King, which is a much more downbeat track, rounding off the album with just enough interest to make you want to listen to it again.
This is my album of 2011 so far. I recommend you listen to it.
with tracks by… Caballo and the Mothafu Kings, Club d’Elf, Jordan Reyne, Secret Archives of the Vatican, My Name Is Yoni, Blackberry, Slomo & Lunte, Chinese Man, Veak, Bottlesmoker.
with tracks by…Nakion, Silver Rocket, Moussu T E Lei Jovents, Adrien Moigard, The Sterns, Le Trio Joubran, El Guincho, Ed Sheeran, Kaira, In-Flight Safety.
I attended Netaudio London Conference on Sunday 15th May with my good friend, netlabel owner and musician Vince Millet, from Secret Archives of the Vatican. Vince has written his own blog post on the conference, which I urge you to read, but here are my own observations and musings.
This was my first time at at Netaudio conference, but have attended excellent unconferences, barcamps and panel discussions before, so was looking forward with an open mind, and open ears, to a fascinating discussion. If I was to try and explain my feelings in the language used in the conference it would go something like this….. (ahem)….
“The didactic invective of the panel, produced, in me, a strong sense of anomie. Perhaps I was not attuned to the Marxist zeitgeist, but the the balance between Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft were clearly at odds with my sub-cultural expectations, leading me to engage in a degree of Schadenfreude.”
In short I didn’t really understand what the panel were talking about, because I don’t speak bollocks.
The day was split into three panels:
Politics, Protest and Sound
Creativity and Collaboration in the Internet Era
Digital Futures and Analogue Survivals
In my view there was only two high-points. In the second panel the high point was Tamara Barnett-Herrin, who explained how she turned her musical “writers block” into a collaborative project, “Calendar Songs”, in which she released one song per month, and then worked with remixers to produce and perform an album in 2008.
In the first panel the high point was Matthew Herbert (keynote) presenting his view of 17 “crises” that the music industry is currently facing, such as technique (for example the overuse of autotune), texture, distribution, listening, philosophy, studios, etc. However the underlying narrative was clearly a Marxist/anti-capitalist agenda, the strength of which I have not heard since I studied sociology in the 1980s, and I thought have died out in the post-Blair era. I should have know better. I was in Camden after all.
As for the other speakers? Well two clearly did not feel they could comfortably “converse” and therefore read their monotonous “essays” verbatim, whilst another spent 30 minutes talking about network hi-fi devices in a presentation that should have take 5 minutes (maximum) to deliver.
Two other presentations talked about the UK Uncut program of actvities and one was from an artist showing her works from as far back as 1965 and had absolutely no relevance to the net or audio.
But it was the underlying Marxist bullshit that got me most annoyed about this event. The blame for all the woes for the music industry was placed firmly at the feet of capitalism, and the cure was anti-capitalism.
Music and musicians have existed long before capitalism was invented, and it’s even easier today to engage in non-capitaist (not anti-capitalist) ventures than it ever has been. Netlabels, where the musician owns the labour and the means of production, are in the ascendance. This is the future of netaudio.
To the organizers of this even I say: 4/10 Must try harder!
Review of Netaudio London Conference 2011Pete2018-04-20T12:46:18+00:00
I’ve always been impressed by the artwork of the Secret Archives of the Vatican. Now Vince has produced a video showing us how it’s done. Looks simple in the video – but I suspect that’s not the case. Anyway – check it out at youtube.
Secret Artwork of the VaticanPete2016-10-14T09:28:05+00:00
with tracks by… Tinariwen, Texture, Ahmed Nasr & Ihab Saleh, Secret Archives Of The Vatican, Singletrack, Nicola Lionfish & Talking Dog. Plus discussions about Marrakech, BDR Dancefloor and t’ing. Plus some traditional Gnawa music recorded live in our Riad.
Two new releases from great netlabels and a great new podcast? You’re spoiling me!
Sao Paulo dub from Dubalizer, Morbidly obscure minimalist dub from Menion in Sardinia and a Peaceful offering from The Keeper of the Archives in The Cronx. Tune in now!
3 reasons to give thanks!Pete2018-04-20T12:46:27+00:00
with tracks by… The Gakk, Dhoad Gypsies of Rajasthan, Heifersonic, Loudog, Hayvenlar Alemi, Secret Archives of the Vatican, Janaka Selekta, Rum Shebeen, Zoom, The Penny Black Remedy.
Secret Archives of the Vatican’s excellent new EP, Dreams and Visions, is now available as a free download from Bandcamp and, of course, checkout the main website at Broken Drum Records.
Secret Archives of the Vatican – Dreams and Visions EPPete2018-04-20T12:46:38+00:00
Read all about it! All the secret archives have now been released at Bandcamp. Need inspiration for a loved one this Christmas? Do all your Christmas shopping in one location? Then look no further than Bandcamp.
Secret Archives Posted At Bandcamp!Pete2018-04-20T12:46:40+00:00
With tracks by….Winston Giles, Radiola Dub Sound System, The Town Near Turin Band, GodManWho, Secret Archives of the Vatican, ElectricOkra, Voide, El Fata, Fed Conti
Checkout the excellent new freee EP, The Glidepath, from Secret Archives of the Vatican. Excellent as always, and the guys are already in the studio for a follow-up.
With tracks by…. Dr Jau and the Peanut Vendors, Mezzamo, Secret Archives of the Vatican, Pixieguts, Little Red Cottage and tracks and an interview with Dave Almgren aka Voide.
There’s a (thankfully short) interview with myself and Rowley Cutler from Dark Compass over on Podcast 15 from Secret Archives. I say, thankfully short, because interviews recorded on #podcrawl day may appear more intelligent than they actually were (or is that the other way around?).
Oh, and there’s some damn fine music as well. Get there soon before I start pilfering it for my podcasts!
This week I’m out and about at the Croydon Summer Festival. Day Two is The Croydon Mela, celebrating music from the Indian subcontinent, but I’m here on Day One for the World Party.